Monster Pictures Guide to the Arts: Musicals

It was announced this week that Matt Smith, Doctor Who star and human Easter Island Statue, will be getting all twinkly-toed and falsetto as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho: The Musical, due to start in London in December 2013. Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the thought of Patrick doing the soft shoe shuffle whilst taking pot shots at the cheap seats with a nail gun and belting out Whitney Houston songs, certainly brings us cheer of an evening. But whilst the thought of basing a musical on a book which Germany deemed harmful to minors and seen as a bit rum in Queensland does raise eyebrows, you gotta give it to everybody on board for at least giving it… a stab (hyuck, hyuck).

We’re feeling pretty theatrical ourselves and as such, we present to you five more unusual choices for musicals. Without a Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark in sight.

And a 1, and a 2, and a 1-2-3…

‘I’m the modern heir to Prometheus/bringing fire to maaan’ sings Dr Herbert West in this tribute to Stuart Gordon’s 1985 schlock-fest, which Gordon has also co-written. H.P. Lovecraft himself denounced his serialised story Herbert West- Re-Animator, calling it his poorest work. As such, he couldn’t possibly have dreamt that one day it would become part of an award winning comedy/rock musical whose highlights include: a dancing cat corpse; a splatter zone in the first 8 rows of the theatre; a tribute to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and yes, a musical number where a disembodied head gives, ahem, head.

The musical has received some pretty glowing reviews with Variety describing it as ‘not since ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ has a screamfest tuner so deftly balanced seriousness and camp’ and it even made its way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last year.